Microsoft adds higher price to SQL Server's new features

Microsoft is bumping up the price of its SQL Server database for the first time in four years.

The company said Tuesday that the Standard and Enterprise editions of SQL Server 2008 R2, coming next year, will see increases in the price you pay per processor.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition will be available at a price per processor of $7,500 versus $5,999, while Enterprise Edition will be priced $28,000 per processor compared to $24,999. You can see the current pricing here.

The brand new Datacenter and Parallel Data Warehouse editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 will be priced the same - $57,500 per processor - and won't come with server and CAL option, Microsoft said at its Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Washington.

It's the first time SQL Server will have gone up since SQL Server 2005 in November 2005. Microsoft said it is adjusting the price "based on the added value of features" its adding, including Master Data Services, StreamInsight, PowerPivot, and data compression.

Clearly sensitive about price rise, Microsoft claimed SQL Server 2008 R2 will remain up to a third cheaper than Oracle.

Commenting on the increased SQL Server 2008 R2 prices, Microsoft said: "Customers that do see price increases will also gain greater value around scalability and enabling customers to take advantage of the latest hardware innovations to help them continue to keep overall TCO low."

Microsoft will give users who migrate six months free access to Dynamics CRM Online in addition to a 30-day free trial. Microsoft's hosted business applications service is already priced lower than Salesforce.com and Oracle on a monthly basis - $44 a month versus $65 and $70.